I took my Packgoats: Grant, Albert, Bryce and Kahlua for a 5 day pack trip in the Chelan Sawtooth area, starting at the West Buttermilk trailhead. I started on Friday, Oct 1st.
The lower West Buttermilk Creek drainage was burned in a forest fire a few years ago, although the trailhead area itself escaped.
After driving to the trailhead, I did not get started hiking until 1 pm, so I hiked in a little over three miles and camped. This was beyond the burn area.
The trail crosses West Buttermilk Creek about 0.3 miles from the trailhead at a horse ford. There is also a trail that goes a couple hundred feet up stream to a sloping log across. I forded the stream with the goats. I was able to keep my boots dry by stepping on larger rocks, and stepping in very shallow water in a couple of places.
Saturday, I continued up the trail. The Larch started at around 6 ½ miles from the trailhead. They were a beautiful bight golden orange in the sunlight. I continued over Fish Creek Pass and down to Star Lake. There were several groups camped in the vicinity of the lake. I continued down to the Summit trail and headed north to Horseshoe Basin, where I camped.
Sunday, I continued north on the Summit trail for about a mile to an area of Larch and wandered through the meadows and trees. I then headed back to the Horseshoe Basin trail and up Tuckaway Lake for a lunch break. After lunch I headed up the trail going over Oval Pass, and down to the junction with the trail going to Middle Oval Lake. The meadows above Middle Oval Lake are surrounded by lots of Larch.
The trail then switchbacks down into the Middle Oval Lake basin. There were a number of trees down across this section of trail. But they were not difficult to go over, under, or around. I camped at Middle Oval Lake that night.
Monday, I continued on to East Oval Lake. The outlet of Middle Oval Lake forms a shallow bay, so I went down stream to a place where it was easy to get across without getting my feet wet. The trail to East Oval Lake goes up over a small ridge and down to East Oval. Not far from Middle Oval Lake there were a bunch of trees down across the trail. A couple of times it took a little looking around to find a good way around the trees with the goats. East Oval in another pretty lake.
I then headed back to Middle Oval Lake and back up the trail. When I got near the top of the basin, I headed up the meadows to connect to a trail/path which goes up to the ridgeline just south of Gray Peak. I continued SE, following the path along the ridgeline toward Courtney Peak. I followed the boot path which traverses down toward the basin below Star Lake. It was quite windy along the ridge line. Monday night I camped in the meadows below Star Lake.
Tuesday, I headed up to Star Lake and on up to Fish Creek Pass. It was again very windy going over the pass. Particular in the Larch below the pass on the east side, I noticed a carpet of Larch needles on the ground. Some of the Larch had lost most of their needles, but overall, the Larch were still a beautiful golden color.
It was a great fall Larch hike with golden Larch, and with blues skies a good part of the time.
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